It would seem the glaring shot differential that has jumped off Winnipeg Jets scoresheets like a giant red flag through the first three games is not that difficult to correct.

At least, if you ask Jets veteran defenceman Mark Stuart.

“It starts in our D-zone and we need to break the puck out cleaner,” Stuart said. “If we get out of our zone cleaner, we’re not going to spend as much time in there and we’re not going to give up as many shots. It’s a matter of that, it’s a matter of getting their cycle stopped right away, closing on people and having guys in position where we can move the puck up and get out of the zone.”

Simple, right?

So why have the Jets had so much trouble putting it into practice?

Through three games, two of which were wins, the Jets have been outshot 108-78. In the first period alone, they’ve been outshot 48-20. Few people would argue that, with those numbers, the Jets are fortunate to be 2-1, thanks in no small part to the performance of goalie Ondrej Pavelec.

Part of the blame lies with the fact the Jets are winning just 41.1% of their faceoffs. If you start without the puck most of the time, you are putting yourself in a tough position. Part of the problem lies with scrambly play in their own zone, perhaps a lack of patience on the part of the players.

“Of course you want to be more patient,” Stuart said. “Everybody wants to be Nik Lidstrom. But sometimes it’s a matter of not just throwing it up the wall to get rid of it and putting your trouble on somebody else. If you have to eat it, you eat and wait for help. It’s about finding the right people to give it to.”

That was where the focus lay for the Jets Tuesday as they practiced for the first time since Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. With a divisional road game coming up Thursday in Minnesota, the Jets want accomplish two major improvements in practice -- the shot differential and the way they start games.

“I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus or we’re just not ready to start the game but it seems like the last three games we’ve come out really slow and we’ve waited to see what the other team is going to do before we got going,” Jets centre Bryan Little said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve been badly outshot and outchanced. We need to focus on coming out of the gates really hard.”

Surprisingly, the Jets have actually outscored their opponents 5-4 in the first period, but that is a statistical anomaly. The shot clock and the numbers of quality chances tell the real story, even though Jets coach Claude Noel said Tuesday shots are not always an indicator of a game’s overall flow.

“It’s more shots relating to scoring chances,” he said. “We concern ourselves with scoring chances and how we’re starting the game. It’s a topic that we’re trying to deal with and we realize what it is and we’re trying to get it fixed. It needs to change.”

Stuart, who is one of the Jets leading shot-blockers, said getting in the shooting lanes more is not part of the solution at this point.

“It’s more positionally, we need to be better in order to not give those shots up at all,” Stuart said. “You shouldn’t have to be trying to block everything. You should be taking away passing lanes, closing on people in the slot so that guy doesn’t have the opportunity to get a shot off.

“It’s kind of a fine line. Yeah, you want to block shots, but if you just depend on screening your goaltender and blocking shots all the time it’s not good. You need to play positionally first, move the puck out well, to not give shots up at all before you want to start thinking about blocking.”

Jets centre Jim Slater said having two practices this week before the game in Minnesota could make a big difference.

“Playing from the inside out is a big thing for us,” Slater said. “We worked on it today in practice, I believe we’re going to work on it tomorrow and we’re going to keep working on it till we get better at it, which we have to.”

As Advertised in the Winnipeg SUN

Winnipeg Jets aim to stop the big shots by shoring up defence

It would seem the glaring shot differential that has jumped off Winnipeg Jets scoresheets like a giant red flag through the first three games is not that difficult to correct.

At least, if you ask Jets veteran defenceman Mark Stuart.

“It starts in our D-zone and we need to break the puck out cleaner,” Stuart said. “If we get out of our zone cleaner, we’re not going to spend as much time in there and we’re not going to give up as many shots. It’s a matter of that, it’s a matter of getting their cycle stopped right away, closing on people and having guys in position where we can move the puck up and get out of the zone.”

Simple, right?

So why have the Jets had so much trouble putting it into practice?

Through three games, two of which were wins, the Jets have been outshot 108-78. In the first period alone, they’ve been outshot 48-20. Few people would argue that, with those numbers, the Jets are fortunate to be 2-1, thanks in no small part to the performan